SUNS 123, CELTICS 115: C's fall in Hayward's return to Utah

The Associated Press

Friday

Nov 9, 2018 at 2:00 AMNov 10, 2018 at 12:24 AM

SALT LAKE CITY — Joe Ingles matched his career high with 27 points and added a season-high seven assists to help the Utah Jazz beat the Boston Celtics 123-115 on Friday night in Gordon Hayward's return to Utah.

Hayward had 13 points and seven assists in his first game back in Utah since leaving the Jazz in free agency after the 2016-17 season. He broke his left ankle last season in the opener.

Donovan Mitchell added 21 points for Utah, Jae Crowder had 20, and Rudy Gobert finished with 17 points and 15 rebounds. The Jazz won their second straight home game and second straight overall.

The Jazz started to pull away when they scored 3-pointers on each of their final four possessions of the second quarter to take a 58-51 halftime lead. Ingles accounted for the first three long-distance baskets — highlighting a 20-point first half for him.

Utah opened the third quarter on a 17-6 run. Mitchell ignited the run by draining three free throws and driving for a layup on back-to-back possessions. Derrick Favors kept it going with back-to-back baskets that gave the Jazz a double digit lead and finished the run off with a pair of free throws that put Utah ahead 75-57 just four minutes into the quarter.

The Jazz eventually built their lead to 20 points, going up 83-63 on a layup from Crowder, before Boston rallied in the fourth quarter.

The Celtics scored on four straight possessions — culminating in Tatum's layup — to ignite a 15-4 run. Rozier buried a 3-pointer to cap off the run and cut Utah's lead to 100-96.

Boston got within four points four more times, the final time on a 3-pointer from Marcus Smart that made it 111-107. But Gobert made a layup to push the lead to six and Tatum missed a pair of layups that could have trimmed the deficit again.

Crowder sealed it on a corner three that gave Utah a 117-109 lead with 47.7 seconds left.

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